McCoys from Cork

Hi - I'm hoping to find some McCoy family members who know of ancestors from Cork - although I'm unsure whether this refers to the town or the county. Our oral family history says that the first Patrick McCoy in our line emigrated from Cork to Australia (but jumped ship around Eden in southern NSW) in the 1830s. Turns out it is most likely that he was a child convict transported from London to Van Diemen's Land in 1828 who subsequently jumped ship on route between Hobart Town and Sydney in the mid to late 1830s after he had received a conditional pardon at age 22.  The Old Bailey transcripts indicate that the boy Patrick was living in 7 Dials - a notorious Irish slum, when he was convicted of stealing a handkerchief in 1826 and sentenced to 7 years in the colonies.  His father was also Patrick, supposedly a mason or bricklayer. It's of course not surprising that the convict episode is omitted from our oral family history and has only really come to light in recent years. Patrick went on to marry a convict's daughter (Mary Ann Hawkins aka Billington) in southern NSW in 1842 and produced 12 children. He lived well into his 90s - although I suspect he fudged the story a bit and was only 95 when he died as opposed to the 99 claimed in all the local papers.

The other intriguing oral info passed down through the generations is that Patrick, the father of the convict was the only surviving brother of at least four boys - the others were supposedly killed during the Vinegar Hill uprising which I know occurred in 1798 near Enniscorthy in Wexford - not too far from Cork, so perhaps possible.  I have absolutely no evidence for this at all.

In any case, even allowing that all my convict ancestor's uncles had perished before having children, I cannot imagine that he was an only child, but  I have so far been unsuccessful in finding any more of his family in either England or Ireland. His death certificate names his mother as Ann O'Shannassy - but needless to say, I have not found any definitive records for her either.  

Please contact me if any of this rings any bells - you can find both Patrick's on my McCoy Doull family tree on Ancestry.  Cheers, Jo McCoy